C'mon Hollywood #208

I try to avoid asking for more/less of any actor, actress, director, writer, etc. because there are way too many stars out there that don’t get enough screen time and way too many stars that get too much. How or why certain stars “make” it and others don’t is beyond my comprehension. But one actress that I’ve been a huge fan of for a very long time is Janeane Garofalo. How is it that one of the funniest female comedians of our generation is virtually invisible nowadays?

So what happened to her? I don’t know, I’m asking you. She had a string of comedic successes in the mid to late 90’s and I thought that was more than enough to afford her some staying power. She had a rough run on Saturday Night Live, but turned in some quality performances in THE TRUTH ABOUT CATS AND DOGS and MYSTERY MEN among others. But when you look at her bio, she has one bad break and bad decision after another. If anything, I think Garofalo is the poster child for coming close to being a superstar, but not quite being able to cross the line.

Did anyone else like MYSTERY MEN?

There are two big events in her career that stand out to me as being her golden opportunities that she just missed. The first was JERRY MAGUIRE where she was offered the role that eventually went to Renee Zellweger. Supposedly, Crowe was going to give her the role if she could lose a certain amount of weight. While she was losing the weight, the role was given to Zellweger. That’s a bummer for Garofalo because a) the movie was great and b) dieting sucks. Her next break came with Kevin Smith’s DOGMA, where Smith famously says in the commentary track that he should have given the lead role to Garofalo. Not much she could have done about that, but if Smith had given her the role, it would have made the movie better and would have probably helped her career out.

I’d like to see more of her on the big screen

But that’s the past and even though those two chances are behind her, I still think there’s a place for her. A lot of people acknowledge how funny she is, but she’s also a very underrated actress in her own right. She showed some acting ability in REALITY BITES and COP LAND, so she shouldn’t be limited to comedic roles. I’m not sure about her current run on 24, but to be honest, I don’t watch the show. I just think she can do better than that. She’s at the age now where she can play the quirky mom or the funny boss. She’s always great with Ben Stiller, so maybe they should reteam and do something together. I think if she was given the right role, she’d be great again and I’d like to see more of her.